What a night. I am very thankful to say that after last night I have seen all three of Iron Maiden's vocalists live, which is quite a feat for a 24-year-old living in the US, and my own personal wet dream.

Ahem, anywho, it was a great night all around. Was my first time at B.B. Kings and I must say it was very nice. Nice atmosphere, it was clean, and the sound was great. I went with my girlfriend who is not a metal fan at all but she actually really enjoyed herself so it was a great time. Got there around 6:30 and stood in the floor area. A local band named Creation's End took the stage shortly after 7:00. They were okay, I couldn't take them very seriously because I thought the singer sounded like Charlie singing "Nightman" in Always Sunny. But oh well, they were good as an opener.

Then a just after 8:00, the second band, Man the Destroyer, came out. They were like some melodic deathy kinda band. Vocalist going between singing and screaming/growling, which is not my cup of tea as many of you know. But instrumentally they were pretty good, which is what I was praying for because they were also Blaze's backing band.

I forget when Blaze himself took the stage, maybe around 9? I wasn't really paying attention. But anyway he came out and started with The Brave, and I tell you, he sounded amazing. As most of you could have guessed, he sounded better than Paul doing Paul stuff when I saw him last year, and honestly I think he sounded better than Bruce does these days doing Bruce stuff. Blaze was spot on, his voice has not gotten any weaker or strained, he sounds just the same if not better. I was very impressed.

He was very interpersonal with the crowd. Took many breaks to thank the crowd so much for the support over the years, saying things like, "I know this place may not be packed, but those of you that have come out truly do mean the world to me, you are the ones that allow me to live my life." etc, he was very kind and genuine which I really enjoyed. During Voices From the Past, he knelt down on the edge of the stage and was grabbing people's hands and singing right to them. He grabbed my girlfriend's shoulder for a moment, then grabbed mine and literally pulled me in and had his arm around me and my forehead was against his shoulder. My forehead got covered in sweat, haha, it was pretty cool. No homo. And then a few songs before he finished he said that afterwards he wasn't going to go hide back in the dressing room, but instead go down to the bar to meet everyone, take pictures, and sign things. It was really cool.

And a side note... he's bald! And his sideburns were white! I'm so used to: I was shocked!

So all in all it was a great night! The setlist was pretty awesome too!

After the show, he went down to the bar and I hopped in the line/crowd to meet him. Ran in to Maideneer and we chatted for a while, it was cool to meet him after all these years. I think I saw SomewhereInTime72 while the floor was emptier for the openers, but I was afraid to approach him because I am very shy and would have been very embarrassed if it wasn't him haha. So Dylan if that was you, I'm sorry. :-P

Here's some pictures:

His fly was open the whole show. I figured it was best to not point it out to him.

With Maideneer.

With the legend himself.

Maideneer with Blaze.

I brought all my Blaze / Blaze-era Maiden CD's but I didn't want to be greedy and take up time so I just had him sign two.

WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
THE ANGER AND THE PAIN
OF ALL THOSE WHO REMAIN
TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
WHO WILL BE LEFT ALIVE?
THERE'S NOWHERE TO HIDE
WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
THE ANGER THE PAIN
WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
*widdly widdly woo*

A local band named Creation's End took the stage shortly after 7:00. They were okay, I couldn't take them very seriously because I thought the singer sounded like Charlie singing "Nightman" in Always Sunny. But oh well, they were good as an opener.

...but Creation's End are awesome. Also, while most of the guys do live in the NYC area, lead guitarist Marco Sfogli is from Italy, and they do have an album out on a legit label with distribution all over the world. Also, that singer you're making fun of is Mike Dimeo (ex-Riot, ex-Masterplan) - one of my favorite vocalists.

Meh. I guess I shouldn't be bitching because I ended up missing the show, but in the end this setlist makes me a little less angry. Only doing 1 song from Tenth Dimension? Failure. He should've done Sign of the Cross instead of The Clansman, dumped some of the Wolfsbane stuff, and done The Tenth Dimension, Speed of Light, and Born as a Stranger instead. Also, swap out the title track of Blood and Belief with Ten Seconds. At least he played Stare at the Sun though. That's the ultimate gem of his solo catalog.

I wish Maiden would play virus. Underrated, excellent song with some of their best lyrics.

It's awesome and underrated the way Blaze plays it, as heard on "As Live as it Gets". The original studio version is pretty rough. About a minute too long with a lot of sloppy performances and missed opportunities.